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National Fitness: Physical Education in Germany

Subjects

Abstract

ON Tuesday, July 20, a striking leader appeared in The Times, entitled "The Empty Chair". It referred to the fact that physical culture had no conspicuous place among the subjects to be discussed at the annual meeting of the British Medical Association at Belfast. "If the doctors will not fill the empty chair, others less well qualified than they will fill it". "Into this pageant of life in action the science of nourishment and the science of personal hygiene will fit easily and with propriety. . . . This is the larger physiology. . . ." The complaint is just and timely. Physical training is largely neglected by doctors and physiologists in Great Britain, and it is almost impossible to obtain expert scientific advice on it.